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The Blockchain Summit Blog

Mark Johnstone

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The breakneck developments in technology over the past decade have transformed entire industries such as the media, the music industry and taxi services. There has however been little in the way of technological innovation in the vast global insurance sector recently, despite our rapidly changing times.

The big story over the past few years has been blockchain, with it being touted as the revolutionary technology that could potentially revolutionise entire business models. Blockchain is a word that is heavily associated with the volatile rise of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, but the technology itself promises to act as a platform to a multitude of real-life improvements for many industries.

With blockchain now being adopted by a number of different sectors it is clear that blockchain is no longer hype – it is having real consequences right now.

The insurance industry, though slow off the mark, is now showing increasing interest in blockchain with leading industry figures such as Arif Amiri, Chief Executive Officer of DIFC (Dubai World Insurance Congress) Authority, saying “In the past decade, technological advances from … blockchain have transformed business models in every sector and insurance is no exception.”

A clear sign of the industry’s new focus on the new technology is the formation of the Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative. Fifteen insurance companies, including industry giants such as Allianz and Zurich, formed the consortium back in late 2016 with the mission of finding out how blockchain’s applications could be used in insurance.